RIKLBLOG

CES 2018, Part 2

Korea in the News

There are pavilions at CES devoted to specific countries. Korea, much in the news recently for far less pleasant reasons, has offered up an eminently practical device. I'd been hoping to find something like this for many years, ever since I declared the banana my official fruit.

I was told that it's a prototype and not yet available for purchase. Until I saw this I hadn't thought through the ramifications vis-à-vis other fruits and even some vegetables. The carrot would seem to be immediately susceptible to brand extension. With appropriate miniaturization I would think even a raisin thermometer should be within reach within this decade. In logical-yesterday's blog I mentioned that Love's Travel Stop had a bowl of expiring bananae that they had to sell at a big discount. If they had a banana thermometer to assure proper storage they could have saved themselves the loss of revenue. Anyway, this is quite the breakthrough; I hope the North Koreans take heed of the commercial possibilities and repurpose their nuclear and rocket scientists to this far more useful pursuit!

Richard!!!!

What?

You've misconstrued the purpose of this product. It's not a thermometer for measuring the temperature of bananas, it's a thermometer shaped like a banana for measuring the temperature of small humans.

What a stupid concept!

On to Art

This instantly recognizable art is actually a picture on a television screen. The demo, again a prototype, showed several famous paintings during a short period. They looked pretty good, with very high resolution. I wasn't able to find anyone at the stand with whom to discuss the "product," which is unpriced and unavailable. Nonetheless, it seems like the ideal way to display your arts at home.

No fear of damage nor need for insurance

Easily change display for different occasions.

Or enjoy several different arts in a small apartment.

They don't even have to be your arts or photos!

And, you can turn it off, or use it to watch television with, to be sure, an odd aspect ratio.

If you're an art connoisseur, I know you're thinking "Philistine" right now, but you weren't there. It looked surprisingly realistic. (Not that you're necessarily wrong about the P word.)

This is a prototype from TCL. But Samsung is also promoting a similar concept, so perhaps it will be available soon.

Flying Underwater

Shenzhen Hoverstar Flight Technology was exhibiting what I assumed from the company name was an unusual, hovering drone.

It certainly appears to have propulsion in its tail, and take off vertically. But the physics is all wrong - it appeared to have no way of maintaining its orientation without thrust vectoring, which wasn't in evidence.

Silly me! If only I had looked at the exhibit more closely, which eventually I did. It would seem what they mean by "Hoverstar Flight" is horizontal submersion. They have a line of these products that help you swim underwater. Cute idea, similar to what you often see in nature videos, but most likely cheaper and more efficient than those relics of the last century.

It would be self-defeating for the lap pool, but a good buy for the SCUBA fan who has everything else.

Speaking of Relics of the Last Century

He's Only Sleeping

60ish years old

112 years old!

Your Government in Action

The Federal Aviation Administration was out in force.
As were the drone manufacturers, large and small, with large and small drones as well. The hardware was getting a lot more attention than the regulators. I had a valuable discussion with one of them about my situation, where the local airport (KSEZ) is in uncontrolled airspace above the surrounding territory.

Good News/Bad News

I haven't run out of pictures.

NP:"Turn Down Day"
The Cyrkle

TotD

The Swift Fury aircraft is built for speed. Roy LoPresti designed it, and his thing, unsurprisingly, was speed. More details from Wikipedia, of course.

I never saw the aircraft in person, but someone brought the T-shirt back from a Sun 'n Fun in 1989. The interesting thing about the shirt is that it's one of the very few green T's that I own. I commutate among them only on St. Patrick's day, so they remain pristine.